Kay Hagan is taking her campaign to the blogosphere.

The ad at right showed up today on Talking Points Memo, a popular blog led by Washington-based reporter Josh Marshall. It links to the Web site for Hagan's campaign for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.

"Kay Hagan for U.S. Senate," it reads. "An effective voice in Washington for North Carolina."

Talking Points Memo definitely leans left, but it features more aggressive reporting on issues such as the firing of U.S. attorneys than the political commentary typical on sites like the Daily Kos.

The ad, a Google ad and recent outreach to progressive group blog BlueNC show that Hagan, who has been spurned by some in the netroots, is making an effort to reach out.

Update: A spokeswoman for Hagan said the ad only runs when visitors to Talking Points Memo have IP addresses registered in North Carolina. 

Josh Marshall says the "second choice factor" could end up being big for Democrats in Iowa.

In a post on Talking Points Memo, the liberal blogger and investigative reporter writes that pollsters already show a shift to Barack Obama when voters second choices are added in:

It's starting to seem like almost all the candidates are either choosing to expressly direct their supporters to caucus for Obama as their second choice, are implicitly doing so or are simply expecting that that's what they'll do. Probably almost 20% of the caucus electorate remains either undecided or supporting a candidate not likely to reach the viability threshold. So that's a lot of support that could potentially swing in Obama's direction.

The Republicans will not have a "second choice" option tonight.